Automatic facial feature detection is a desirable feature of face and gaze tracking systems, as it enables the system to cope with new users without prior knowledge of the user's appearance. Prior art systems are known which can achieve automatic feature detection.
However, these are limited in their robustness and application, as they are unable to cope with, inter alia, a wide variety of individual appearances, and variable lighting conditions.
The majority of prior art base detection systems rely heavily on skin color to locate the face within video images, and thus they may be highly sensitive to lighting conditions and are unable to operate using monochromatic images.
Whilst the present invention has particular application to the field of facial feature detection, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that it is not limited thereto and is applicable wherever automatic feature detection is required.